Mount Rainier: A Climbing Guide

Now climbers can get away from the crowded dog routes and experience a wide array of Rainier's most fun, challenging, and complex routes.

Mount Rainier: A Climbing Guide features 39 of the mountain's best routes, complete with details on the approach, the climb, and the descent, as well as elevation gain, difficulties and hazards, and season. Also covered are the latest in permit and park regulations, preparation, the high camps and bivvy sites, summit day, and winter climbing. Safety information includes weather and climate considerations, objective hazards, altitude illness, cold weather concerns and other medical problems, safety tips, and what to expect in a rescue situation.

With 50 b&w photos (35 with route overlays) and 3 maps, this is the most comprehensive climbing guide to Mount Rainier.

Mike Gauthier started backpacking in the Washington wilderness at age eleven. His professional career began in Olympic National Park as a volunteer backcountry ranger. Ten years ago, he joined the National Park Service climbing staff at Mount Rainier where he is now the Lead Climbing Ranger. Mike has summited Mount Rainier over 150 times by twenty-four different routes, in all seasons and under all conditions. He regularly conducts workshops in mountain and rope rescue techniques, cold weather survival skills, backcountry snowboarding, and avalanche awareness. In 1998, he was designated a Wilderness Rescue Hero by the American Red Cross.In addition to his activities at Mount Rainier, he has led three expeditions to Alaska's Mount McKinley and is an avid snowboarder, rock climber, and photographer. His photographic artwork is on permanent display in the National Park Inn at Longmire, Washington. Mike lives in Mount Rainier National Park.